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Monday, August 20, 2012

Youth film fest to open at Seoul City

This
film image released by the Seoul International Youth Film Festival
shows Rick Lens as Jojo in Dutch director Boudewijn Koole’s film
“Kauwboy” (2012), Dutch for “jackdaw boy.” The festival, which opens
Thursday and closes after a week, is in its 14th annual edition. This
year, there are 140 films from 40 nations.

/ Courtesy of Seoul International Youth Film Festival

Seoul is going to host to for 120 films from 40 nations when the
curtain rises on the 14th Seoul International Youth Film Festival on
Thursday.

The week-long event brings some of the finest youth-themed works in
world cinema to three venues in the Seongbuk district, an area with
several premier universities teeming with young people but a cultural
hinterland in comparison to the western Seoul zones around Hongdae, or
Hongik University. There will be 16 world premieres and eight first-time
showings outside the respective films’ country of origin.

The opener will be the Dutch film “Kauwboy” (2012), Dutch for the
“jackdaw boy,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival
in February and won the “Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk” award for the best
film in the Generation Kplus juvenile category. Directed by Boudewijn
Koole, whose films have focused on children’s loneliness, the movie
tells the story of a 10-year-old boy named Jojo who brings home a bird
but must keep it safely hidden from his emotionally unstable father with
a history of anger-charged outbursts.

It stars Rick Lens as Jojo and Loek Peters as his father Ronald.

The festival also gives an ample opportunities for youths aged above 13 to
compete with original cinematic works, short and long. Some of the
winners will be screened at the closing ceremony, which takes place on
Aug. 29.

Other categories include Kid’s Eye, for the general audience; Teen’s
Eye, rated for over 13; Strong Eye, for adult moviegoers; a special
section to celebrate the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games; and an
invitational category for the highlights from this year’s International
Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, southeastern France.

According to the organizers, this year 1,235 films were submitted from
more than 60 countries, a sharp rise of 110 works from the previous
edition.

The 14th Seoul International Youth Film Festival opens Thursday at the
Inchon Memorial Hall at the Korea University campus in Anam-dong.
Thereafter all films in and out of competition will be shown in Arirang
Cine & Media Center in Donam-dong, CGV Sungshin Women’s University
in Dongseon-dong and the outside plaza Baram-Madang near the district
office and the newly-restored stream Seongbuk Stream. The closing
ceremony will return to the Korea University campus.

For the opening ceremony, the country’s most acclaimed filmmakers are
scheduled to attend, including Lee Joon-ik, Im Kwon-taek, Chung Ji-yoon
and Kim Yoo-jin. Critically-acclaimed actors like Ahn Sung-ki, Kang
Soo-yeon, Ha Jung-woo and Yoo Ji-tae, among others, are to walk the red
carpet as well.

Tickets to screenings cost 6,000 won, except for the opening and closing
films, which cost 10,000. For more information, visit www.siyff.com and
follow the festival on www.facebook.com/siyff and
www.twitter.com/SIYFF.